Each debate will cover six topics lasting 15 minutes, picked by the moderator and announced ahead of time. That places a big burden on the moderator to use the time wisely to craft a good exchange. You can lob up names of accomplished journalists ‘til the cows come home, but it’s very hard to find someone who can do that.

If only there were some sort of organization that identified and developed journalists who feel comfortable in front of cameras!

One person Brown does have faith in is Jim Lehrer, who’s moderated eight presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate since the last time a woman soloed as moderator. That was in 1992, when Carole Simpson held down a town hall in Richmond, Va.

“I was told in my earpiece by a producer, ‘Go interview the lady in the green dress on the left, and now the man in the red sweater.’ I had no control over the questions that were asked, or who asked, or in what order. I was like a traffic cop.

Lehrer compared being asked to moderate a debate to being drafted:

“Sheer public service,” he called it, never mind that he has said he’d never do another one.

With no disrespect intended to one of the finest broadcast journalists this nation has produced, if the answer to the debate commission’s question is so often “Jim Lehrer,” couldn’t its query stand some review?

The “debates” are a joke. There hasn’t been an actual debate of ideas and policy since John Adams. This election, because of the increased polarization of the parties, is more about philosophical ideas than any election since the 1920s. The upcoming debates don’t need a journalist they need a philosophy professor. Michael Sandal would be a good prospect. Anyone who can actually get the candidates to get to the core of their beliefs and why is what’s needed. This country doesn’t need another 60 minutes if gently probing questions with softball answers.

Anonymous

I think you give a clue to why it is so hard to find a “good” moderator in Ms. Simpson’s statement.

It is hard to find someone who appears to be challenging the participants yet is following a script the whole time. Unfortunately, almost all journalists who are interested in actually informing people work outside the beltway bubble and thus are automatically excluded by the MSM.

Anonymous

I think you give a clue to why it is so hard to find a “good” moderator in Ms. Simpson’s statement.

It is hard to find someone who appears to be challenging the participants yet is following a script the whole time. Unfortunately, almost all journalists who are interested in actually informing people work outside the beltway bubble and thus are automatically excluded by the MSM.